Jury deliberations begin in Tyler Savage murder case

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TACOMA, Wash. -- The fate of accused murderer Tyler Savage is now in the hands of a jury. He's charged in the death of 16-year-old Kimmie Daily of Puyallup.

There's no question that Daily and Savage met together as friends on August 17, 2010. How their get-together ended is up for dispute.

The prosecution is basing its case on Savage's taped confession the day he was arrested. It was played again for jurors.

"She got up and started to go and I just choked her from behind," Savage said on tape that day. "She died and I threw her in the sticker bushes kind of afraid of what I did."

Deputy Pierce County prosecutor Phil Sorensen demonstrated the choke hold to the jury.

"So he subdued her. He got up and he threw an arm around her neck and he held her until she went to the ground," Sorensen said.

Savage's defense team paints a different picture of their client. Savage recanted his confession of the cold-blooded murder on the witness stand last week, claiming it was an accident during rough sex at her insistence.

"She told me she wanted me to tie something around her neck," Savage said last week.

He told the jury he felt uncomfortable about the request, but went ahead with it anyway.

Instead of premeditated murder and rape, Savage defense attorney Les Tolzin said his client is guilty only of second degree manslaughter, admitting Savage should have known what he was doing could lead to death.

"I am not telling you to let him go, to let him go unpunished," said Tolzin. "He should have known."